Resort Details
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
7496 reviews
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Mar 28, 2025Worst Food at All-Inclusive Resort by Westin - Would not return or recommend
WARNING: AVOID THIS RESORT – FOOD QUALITY IS UNACCEPTABLE ! As a Titanium Elite Marriott member, I have traveled extensively and experienced many resorts—nothing compares to how shockingly bad the food was here. You have to try really hard to make food this terrible at a so-called 5-star resort. Disastrous Dining Experience Across ALL Restaurants: 🔴 Faisanela (Club Area Restaurant) – Paid extra for lobster that was stale and smelly (borderline dangerous to eat). The steak was flavorless and low quality, the Moroccan soup was watered-down mystery liquid with dried chickpeas, and fish tasted unfresh. Even the cannoli dessert had a stale shell. Breakfast? Barely passable—microwaved waffles and cheap bread. 🔴 Spirula Trattoria (Italian) – How do you ruin Italian food? Somehow, they managed. Tasteless, low-quality ingredients across the board. Stale fish, soggy and flavorless calamari, and a bland, uninspired lamb shank. 🔴 Mitra Market (Buffet Breakfast) – One of the worst buffet experiences ever. Poor-quality food, sloppily served. Omelet station staff couldn’t understand English or take basic instructions. Juices? Completely watered down. 🔴 Caracola Restaurant (Lunch) – Completely disgusting. Stale Red Snapper, undercooked burgers, bad calamari, and a tasteless chicken club sandwich. 🔴 Club Pool Grill – UNSANITARY & SLOPPY – Absolutely unhygienic. Saw the chef using the same utensils for raw and cooked food, handling raw meat with bare hands, and then assembling burgers with those same hands. If you care about food safety, avoid at all costs! Complete Disregard for Guests – We Gave Up & Ate Elsewhere After two days of one awful meal after another, we refused to subject ourselves to more and chose to eat out instead—despite paying for an all-inclusive package. It felt like the resort was cutting corners by serving trash food just because it was included. Other Issues: • Beach was not swimmable – Constant vendor harassment and massage solicitors. • Security Concerns – Left slippers unattended for 15 minutes—stolen immediately. Final Verdict: STAY AWAY Unless Food Quality Drastically Improves! The property itself is beautiful, and non-restaurant service staff were good, but terrible food ruined the entire experience. They have the facilities and ingredients to do better—someone just needs to actually care. Until then, this resort is a complete waste of money.
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Mar 27, 2025Incredible Family Vacation!
Our family had the best time on our vacation at the Westin. The bungalows are spacious and fabulous with adjoining rooms for other family members. We loved having breakfast at the buffet and then heading over to the gym. We loved the convenience of the golf carts that picked us up and took us anywhere on the property especially to the pool and the beach. The beach was really great and we appreciated finding Eric G (in his blue shirt) who hooked us up with sunset horseback rides, transportation for our shopping trip to Tamarindo, scuba diving with Aaron (Under the Sea Diving) and heading out for an all day excursion to the rainforest to see sloths and zip lining with our tour guide Jeffery.
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Mar 25, 2025Family a great place to. Big hotel
We were in November one week, with the family. I must said , the Family package it is a must to have, special if you are travelling with children . Speed check in and out, special places in on the pools, dinners reservations etc. Gracias Emanuel Briceño, for making our time there more confortable and all the help with gave us
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Mar 25, 2025
Temper expectations but experience Pura Vida!
Temper expectations and enjoy Pura Vida! Just completed a five day stay w family (two teenagers) and here are my musings. Initially stayed in two junior suites (w 2 kings) on opposite ends and different levels of the same villa, but was able to switch into adjoining rooms (one king +2 double beds) after the first night. Front desk was very helpful coordinating the switch. Rooms were clean, but one had a musty smell. Did not encounter any mold or bugs in the rooms. Overall quality of the villas were closer to a US Sheraton or ‘older’ Westin. Nespresso type coffeemaker and stocked (water, juice & beer) fridge in each room were pillared daily. Ate at Mitra, Cauri, Spirula, Caracola, Manglar, Bamboo, La Sabana and El Ranchito. Overall quality of food was on par to slight below other AI or cruises we have experienced. We enjoyed the food and service at Manglar the most; surprisingly, the steak was the best prepared across the restaurants we tried. Burgers for lunch at Caracola are thicker than at El Ranchito. Caracola also had a whole fried fish as the ‘catch of the day’ that was good. Bamboo was the only restaurant that takes reservations (through AIMB app). Room service was a few minutes early w complete order. Resto service was occasionally spotty, some had long waits for entrees while other times the food would appear immediately, before the drinks could be made. Some of the delays may have been due to cultural expectations (impatient American teenagers) and understaffing. The employees do rotate across different restaurants, so there will be variations in service. There are self serve coffee machines (Americano, lattes, etc) just off the lobby/Cauri and Mitra bars. There is a Westin ‘beach valet’ who will set up lounge chairs and umbrellas (if not windy) on the beach at request, the 2 days we found him (right at the entrance) he was incredibly helpful. The beach is fantastic. Sellers line the path from the hotel grounds to the beach, they are vocal but not pushy (like the cruise terminal in St. Thomas). Beach massages are $40 an hour, I used the GREEN tables, they were awesome!!! Activities: Sunset sail with lazylizardsailing.com. 1:30 PM pick up time and 7PM return. A consideration for those w mobility issues is that there is no dock, tender is from shore to dingy to catamaran. Snorkel, SUP and kayaks at Honeymoon beach. Tacos and drink were great. UTV beach tour with transfers506.com. 3 hr tour to visit 3 beaches, including Pirate and Mina beaches. Ride is fun along many bumpy and washed out roads, but very dusty. They do sell bandanas for cover, but would be better off bringing own coverage (which we forgot). Our guide, Juan, was excellent, jovial and a great picture taker. Grand Canyon Rincon tour w costaricafaylatours.com. 7 AM pick up, 7 PM return. Picked up in new Honda Pilot. Visited the operandola falls and experienced most of the activities associated with Hotel Hacienda Giachipelin. Zip-line, mudbath/hot springs, class 1/2 water tubing, short Rio Negro waterfall hike and visited Operandola Falls. Mike, our guide and driver, was courteous and informative. He went out of his way to do a quick Rio Negro waterfall hike to show several natural points of interest. He has an interest in bird watching and also provides nature tours for Fayla and his own (Sloths Adventure Tours). EVERY employee (and EVERY Costa Rican outside the hotel) we met, including the valet, front desk, waiters, bartenders, beach chair staff and spa were kind, gracious and accommodating. We tried to tip the servers and guides generously as the it means so much more to them. We brought many one and five dollar bills, there is an ATM in the lobby and the front desk can break larger bills. if one is looking for a premium or 5 star experience, there are other resorts or rentals w private chefs/service. Overall, this was a wonderful initial experience in Costa Rica. Despite the occasional spotty service, this was our kids favorite ‘beach vacation’ and one of our favorite vacations. Only regret is not spending more time learning about local culture and eating local cuisine. Pura Vida!
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Mar 24, 2025
CR for the win
I will rate this as compared to high end Mexico AIs I've been to 1 - size/crowds - I was there on spring break, high time, near capacity, lots of rooms. Pools, restaurants and beach never felt packed. At peak, there were still a few lawn beds to be found on the beach and by the pool. No signs of early morning saving chairs - if you were at the pool by 11 a.m. you had your pick of good spots. this was far better experience than Cancun. 2 - really loved the layout of the pool. plenty of spaces to throw a ball, other spaces to beach out and get a suntan in the water. water temp was perfectly balmy, drinks were served fast at the bar. Complaint that there did not appear to be chair service, so walk yourself up to the bar. Minor inconvenience, as bar was centralized. 3 - activity center was right next to beach in eye shot, great for kids hopping in and out of water as activities popped up. low key, not as many activities as we experienced in Mexico, but my young teens enjoyed the ones they had (ping pong tourney, bingo) 4 - the beach is beautiful and so clean. No seaweed (score for CR!). It is a public beach so the second we stepped out I thought oh sh... there were peddlers waving us down. Turns out, this was lovely. Your cast down on the beach - Erik the blue shirt guy who will legit set you up with good tours, a few lovely folks selling decently nice items (I bought a nice purse and wrap), a couple masseuses (I recommend NINA in the brown tent, excellent 1 hr massage for $40!) and a couple selling those big drinks in a pineapple. All friendly, not pushy, and by day 2 you're feeling like their family. Upside, plenty of room on the beach to do whatever you want. Downside,not part of the AI. Walk the couple hundred feet back to the property bar for each mai tai refill. 5 - excursions. we had toured CR all over by the time we got here so we didn't go on any except my husband and kids went off shore fishing. There appeared to be several excusions tho. Even on property you could jet ski, ride horses, surf, anyways more than Mexico resort. Score for CR. 6 - food. I hate mid food but with an AI you have to set your expectations accordingly. I had tempered my family that we were entering the 'meh food' part of our CR trip. Food exceeded expectations. the breakfast was just ok, decent selection but nothing super tasty. i was annoyed there did not appear to be to go coffee. in fact, no place to get coffee outside of the breakfast buffet except the coffee shop WHICH YOU PAY FOR. super annoyed by this. FFS its CR, the country of coffee. Also there weren't snack options set up around resort like i've seen in Mexico (ice cream, smoothies, crepes etc). Just a french fry stop, which didn't slam on a 95 degree pool day. Kids would have killed for a mid day popcicle. Maybe room service? we didn't try that. Anyways, the steak place was surprisingly decent (we're from KC so .. steak..) and the italian place was actually tasty. The fish place seared up the yellowtail tuna my kids had caught that day and prepared it perfectly with sides. V nice! we never made reservations so we couldn't eat at Bamboo either night (ugh) but had no problems getting in to any other restaurant without a wait (it was 6-615 when we went...maybe we beat the rush?) 7 - rooms. fine. clean. comfortable. hot water and ac and all. None of the drippings like extra room, exciting mini fridge selection, TV stations, bath amenities, no ocean view...not up to cancun resort par here. but quiet and easy. 8 - service. ok a little concerned at check in. fine, but nothing beyond your holiday inn welcome. no welcome drink (you grow to expect this in Mexico AI). Improved from there - the transport, restaurant, bar staff all very on point. High regards here. 9 - entertainment. we had one drink while we watched a traditional CR band and watched the silent disco. This is a family resort it appears. enough entertainment to have something to look at while you have a drink and enjoy the weather. Don't come here for the night life. Or daytime pool life for that matter. It's a low key, hope you brought your own earpods, kinda vibe. I didn't hate it. 10 - drinks.tanguray, smirnoff, J&B, some local things. Wine? woof. They mixed the drinks decently enough. But damn what I wouldn't have given for a nice glass of ... anything. So in summation? Resort felt like it was missing a handful of 'top end' touches that we'd enjoyed in Mexico resorts....BUT....I really liked this place and would come back. Here's why - it was CHILL like a vacation should be. Vibe was...we have this beautiful beach, and these beautifully nice people, and some monkeys and crazy beautiful flora, and some moderately respectable food, and we're gonna lay it all out here and say Pura Vida. Which I think means "f*ck your extra amenities." And yeah, Pura Vida. Except the coffee, Tico. Nosotras necesitamos mas puto cafe!
*Prices per person based on double occupancy including round-trip airfare via U.S. certified air carriers (unless otherwise stated), hotel taxes and baggage handling, fuel surcharges, and all pre-collected U.S. and foreign taxes. Round-trip airport/hotel transfers are included in Mexico (excluding Loreto), Central America and many Caribbean Islands. Transfers not included for air-only passengers. Prices valid on new bookings only and in some instances, pricing may specifically apply to one of multiple flights on select departure days. All packages are based on the lowest hotel/air classes available at time of publication, capacity controlled, subject to availability and change without notice. Promotional pricing may only be available for a limited time. Restrictions & black -out dates may apply. Fees may apply for carry-on and checked baggage-view Baggage Policies. Some resort fees, environmental levies and departure taxes are not included and may be payable in resort. View Frequently Asked Questions for more information. Apple Vacations is not responsible for errors or omissions. Bookings are subject to the current General/Cancellation Terms & Conditions. All public charter flights Allegiant Air: PC 20-070/PC 21-043; Swift Air: PC 21-056; Viva Aerobus: PC 20-081; Volaris: PC 20-099 are operated by ALG Vacations Corp. Apple Vacations materials (including, but not limited to, names, trademark, service marks, logos, marketing materials, etc.) shall not be used, reproduced, transmitted or distributed in any way, except with the express written consent of Apple Vacations. CST2139014-20. This information is current as of June 3, 2021.